DC (Sort of) Tourist Part II

Three months ago, I had grand and ambitious plans to spend my time off between jobs wisely. I bought my first digital SLR camera (Canon EOS xsi) to take pictures while I played DC tourist in my back yard. I had lots of time, $300 on my Metro card, and tons of free museums and sights to visit.

I should add here for people who don't know, I joined the Coast Guard after high school. On top of only having three weeks off each summer while at the Academy, my life was dictated by the Coast Guard's needs. When I could take vacation not only had to be approved by my boss (standard for just about everyone working) but was also subject to war declarations, natural disasters, increased security, duty schedules, and general public chaos. I never had the year off after college to back pack around Europe and "find myself." I'm not complaining, just stating that I've been a very busy military worker bee since 18.

At the beginning of June, I started my terminal leave which meant I was still employed by the Coast Guard, but I didn't have to go to work since I separated at the end of the month. I was seriously job hunting at this point, but did not need to be anywhere on a regular basis for 9 -10 hours a day.

Suddenly, I had lots and lots of time on my hands. Hence the grand scheme for DC tourist.

Fast forward to the beginning of August. Other than traveling out of town three weekends out of four in July, I did one trip to the Mall which I talked about in my previous post. Now, I've been reading like a mad dog, and spending lots and lots of time with the dogs and cats. But the grand plan of sightseeing slowly slid away as I gradually got up later and later.

I decided this week that if I plunked down some hard earned cash and bought tickets ahead of time, I would be forced to get my ass out of bed at a somewhat decent hour (you mean going to bed at 4 am and waking up at noon isn't decent?!?) and be an ambulatory member of society if not a completely productive one.

I got up the earliest this morning than any other in the last two months (5:30 am!) to drive up to Baltimore to visit the National Aquarium in Baltimore. An interview with the director of the Aquarium on NPR last week piqued my interest. After successfully skirting most of the rush hour traffic by leaving at 7:30, I made good time to Baltimore with plenty of time to get my admission ticket, and tickets for the 4-D Immersion Theater and Dolphin Show.

The Aquarium had a diverse mix of salt water and fresh water habitats and animals on display. A huge tank had about 20 sting rays and manta rays gliding through the water. Once I found a spot to look into the tank instead of looking down at the sting rays and manta rays, the beauty and grace of watching them flap and ripple their way through the water was very soothing. I could have sat there all day.

Lots of sharks. Yuck.

Tons of tanks with different species of fish. Here is one of them.

I headed over to the Immersion Theater which is a 3-D show with added senses for the audience in coordination with the show. The bubbles, water sprays, smells and wind were great. Having things touching my legs and poking me in the back freaked me out. I really really don't like things touching me that I can't see. After the second thing whipped around my legs, I chickened out and put me feet off the floor and on top of my camera bag. Ack!

The Dolphin Show was quiet and tame since the Aquarium had a bottle-nosed calf born nine days ago. The staff wanted to not traumatize the new-born with loud noises and asked the audience to not even clap. I used my zoom lens for the first time and got some nice pics of the sweet dolphins.

The Aquarium had an Amazon exhibit with birds, a tree-toed sloth (which just looked like a mound of grassy moss) and amphibians. Here is a colorful bird. I know nothing about birds, so I can't tell you what kind it is or anything. Also, a volunteer very enthusiastically pointed out two primates, and I forgot what they are called. Oops. But I got some pictures of them!

And lastly, this quote finished off the Aquarium experience for me.

I'll write another blog about the sheer irony of how I spent 17 years in the Coast Guard, I love the ocean, I love the water, but am absolutely terrified of swimming in open water and having something touch me. I forced myself to go snorkeling in Aruba once and practically had a heart attack when I cruised along at the surface of the water and caught a glimpse out of the corner of my eye of something that I thought was swimming towards me. Terror. Absolute terror.

Next trip: Thursday at the International Spy Museum and possibly finish the Holocaust Memorial Museum.

DC Tourist, Part 1

I did some searching online last night, and ran across an announcement for the Jim Henson Exhibit at the International Gallery of the Smithsonian. No photography was allowed, but I did stop and read every placard which took about an hour and a half. Lots of Jim Henson's earlier work was displayed, and clips from some of his non-Muppet film shorts, as well as drawings, sketches and storyboards from Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock, Labyrinth, the Dark Crystal and others. Fantastic. The exhibit is traveling, and I already let my sister know it's coming to Orlando in February. I got teary walking through room after room of Jim Henson's vision of teaching children community, learning, and peace and thinking how much the world lost when he died.

No pictures were allowed inside the exhibit, so this was the only one I could get.



Due to some weird twist of fate, I walked over to the National Holocaust Memorial Museum around 3:30 pm. When the museum opened, tickets were needed to go through the permanent exhibit, and I wanted to see if tickets were still necessary and when they usually ran out. Lo and behold, active duty military and veterans get special tickets reserved for them every day, so I snagged one. Since I knew I could get a ticket any time, I wasn't in a huge rush to get through the exhibit in the two remaining hours the museum was open.

The elevator took me up to the fourth floor, and immediately the experience was the polar opposite from the Jim Henson Exhibit. There were about 30 people in the first room and hallway coming from the elevator, and not one person said a word. Other than the shuffling of feet, a dead, heavy silence filled the area. The ceiling and walls are black and the floor dark, so that the displays, pictures and videos starkly contrast in black and white. Having read up a lot about the Holocaust growing up, and reading fiction set in that time, I knew the horror of what I was getting into. But when I came across pictures of Polish school teachers and priests moments before they were executed in the woods and fields, I started to tear up again. Perhaps the Nazis being so organized and documenting everything wasn't such a bad thing, there is plenty of photos and videos giving evidence to their systematic approach for domination. One thing interested me: Along with exterminating the mentally and physically handicapped, acute alcoholism was considered a mental illness and acute alcoholics were sent to concentration camps or shot on sight. I got about halfway through the permanent exhibit; up until Auschwitz which is probably a depressing point to stop. I quickly cruised through the last half which encompassed the liberation of the concentration camps, heroes, children of holocaust survivors, and the memorial room. I plan on going back to spend more time listening to the tapes and watching the videos and seeing the last half of the exhibit.

I'm not sure why I happened to visit one exhibit full of light, love and happiness, and the next one filled with horror and despair. Sometimes life is like that.